Christians rebuke Tucker Carlson claim Judea, Samaria ‘not real’

Christian supporters of Israel are pushing back against Tucker Carlson’s claim that using terms like Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank is like referencing the fictional world of Narnia, along with other remarks the political pundit made during a podcast with a recently fired U.S. State Department press officer.

The former Fox News host released on Friday his interview with Shahed Ghoreishi, a contractor who had previously worked for the Bureau of Near East Affairs. During the interview, Ghoreishi reiterated his claim that the State Department had fired him following disputes over the language and terminology used in statements about Israel. 

Ghoreishi cited several events that he believes resulted in his termination. One involved a reported dispute between him and David Milstein, a spokesman and senior advisor to the Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, over the use of “Judea and Samaria” instead of the “West Bank” in a press statement. 

Milstein is also the stepson of conservative radio host and Fox News commentator Mark Levin. Ghoreishi claimed that Milstein preferred the State Department use wording that was also being applied by “the more extreme wing of the Israeli government.” 

“Just to be clear, again, putting Judea and Samaria in an official U.S. government communication, it’s like using the term Narnia or something,” Carlson said to Ghoreishi’s agreement. “It’s not a real place.”

Luke Moon, the executive director of The Philos Project, a nonprofit organization that equips Christians seeking to support Israel and the Jewish people, asserted that anyone who has read the Bible knows Judea and Samaria are not fairy tales. Moon told The Christian Post that the regions are “the real heartland of Israel.”

“These are the same hills where Abraham walked, where David tended sheep, where prophets thundered the Word of God,” Moon said. “The only people who believe Judea and Samaria to be fictional names are the ones who’ve never opened the Book they claim to believe in.” 

Susan Michael, president of the U.S. branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, also disagreed with the comparison of Judea and Samaria to Narnia. In a statement to CP, Michael noted that these terms have been used since biblical times and that the State of Israel still uses them today. 

“By contrast, ‘West Bank’ only describes the brief 19-year period of Jordanian occupation,” she said. “It is far more accurate to call the region Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland of Israel.”

Another incident that Ghoreishi asserted led to his firing was a draft response to a question about reports of Israel relocating Gazans to South Sudan. In the draft, Ghoreishi wrote that the Trump administration does not support the “forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.”

Ghoreishi previously told The Associated Press that he drafted the statement in response to a media inquiry regarding discussions between Israel and South Sudan about potentially relocating Gazans to the East African country. 

According to UK Lawyers for Israel, an association of legal professionals that combat what they perceive as misinformation, noted in its analysis of international law and the war in Gaza, that Israel has previously relocated Gazans with the stated aim of reducing the number of civilian casualties. 

A third event that Ghoreishi believes resulted in his firing involved reported disagreements over whether the State Department should express sympathy for journalists killed in Gaza, such as Anas al-Sharif, an employee of Al Jazeera, a Qatari-government-run news outlet, who the Israel Defense Forces killed in a strike back in August.

According to Ghoreishi, a senior official told him to be cautious about expressing condolences for these reporters and their families until more information was released about their possible associations with Hamas. Ghoreishi then cast doubt upon the Israeli military’s claim that reporters like al-Sharif are affiliated with Hamas, the terrorist group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since its election in 2007. 

“The whole justification for all this, you just said it,” Carlson said. “These journalists get blown up. They were Hamas. OK, end of conversation.” 

In his statement to CP, Moon contended that evidence is “overwhelming” that many of the “so-called journalists” killed in Gaza had ties to Hamas. 

“They held cameras by day and rifles by night,” Moon stated. “The evidence here is in such abundance that it is impossible to consider the ignorance as anything other than malice.”

In August, the watchdog group HonestReporting condemned multiple mainstream media outlets for their reporting on the death of al-Sharif after the IDF released its intelligence that claimed to show the man was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell. The IDF also claimed that al-Sharif was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and its soldiers. 

At one point during the interview, Carlson and Ghoreishi discussed the violence and harassment against Christians in the region. Carlson also accused Israel of using U.S. tax dollars to persecute Christians, asserting that “self-described” Christians and Christian leaders in the West don’t seem to care. 

“No one can plausibly claim that a Christian family is in Hamas,” Carlson argued. ”You can’t claim that they’re in Hamas while simultaneously claiming that Hamas is, you know, a group of jihadis.”

“They’re Islamic extremists, which they also claim constantly, which I don’t know if that’s true, by the way,” Carlson continued. “Seems more like a political organization, but whatever it is, they’re telling us constantly they’re al-Qaeda.”

While Moon agreed that Christians in the Middle East are “under siege,” an issue that he asserted deserves more attention than it receives, he questioned why Carlson doesn’t appear concerned for persecuted Christians when Jews aren’t involved.

“And lest we forget, the only true threat to Christians in the Middle East is radical Islamists who want to erase Christians from the region entirely,” Moon told CP. “We must not pretend otherwise.” 

Moon added that not only are there Christians who support Hamas, but there are also Christians in the Middle East who have started terrorist groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

“Tucker clearly has no clue how religious identity works in the Middle East. Out there, ‘Christian’ can be nothing more than a tribal label, not a statement of faith,” Moon stated. 

Regarding the political pundit questioning Hamas’ classification as a terrorist organization, Moon asserted that only someone who is “willfully blind could ignore the rapes, beheadings and shootings of suspected collaborators and mass murders they proudly broadcast to the world.” 

“When even Hamas calls itself radical Islamist extremists, maybe take them at their word,” Moon asserted. 

Multiple militants affiliated with Hamas filmed themselves as they carried out their attacks against the Jewish State on Oct. 7, 2023, an assault that led to the massacre of around 1,200 people and the abduction of over 240 others, including 40 Americans, as hostages. 

In response to Carlson, the ICEJ USA president highlighted how Israel expressed remorse after stray munition hit the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza earlier this summer, which resulted in the deaths of three Christians. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office released a statement at the time, declaring that “Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.” 

Michael also stressed in her statement to CP that Israel affirmed at the time that it never targets churches or religious sites. She added that, after the stray munition hit the Holy Family Catholic Church, the IDF reinforced measures to protect sensitive locations.

“Finally, there should be no confusion about Hamas. Its own charter calls for the genocide of the Jewish people, and on October 7, 2023, it carried out barbaric atrocities against innocent civilians — slaughtering families, kidnapping children and terrorizing communities,” Michael stated. 

“Hamas routinely embeds its fighters and weapons in hospitals, schools and even places of worship, cynically using civilians as shields,” she added. “These actions leave no doubt: Hamas is not a political movement but a terrorist organization by its own words and deeds.”

In response to an inquiry about Ghoreishi, the State Department directed CP to a Friday X post by Tommy Pigott, the principal deputy spokesperson for the Department of State. 

While the social media post didn’t reference Ghoreishi by name, Pigott alluded to a former contractor who he claimed had been working to “derail the President’s agenda.” The spokesperson also accused the contractor of attempting to slander Huckabee and Milstein.

“This former contractor admitted himself that he was attempting to put ‘guardrails’ on the administration of the duly elected President of the United States,” Pigott wrote. “That was the reason he was fired. Anything implying otherwise is a complete fabrication.”